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Artist Shahid Mirza’s Azadi Series is a set of seven mix media paintings illustrating different aspects of our ‘freedom’ from British rule in the 1947 partition of India. From the direct, explicit and in-your-face bloody history of our colonization to the fading shades of secularism in Pakistan, these paintings invite us to contemplate on ourselves post-partition.

Choice of mix media creates the eerie feeling of contemporality within the historicity of the past. With each of these paintings, the Artist tries to bring us back to that moment of promise when freedom from colonization and sectarian bigotry seemed possible; when millions of lives were lost to achieve it.

By bringing us back to that moment of promise, the Artist encourages us to confront our own concepts and constructs of ‘freedom’ before we go on and congratulate ourselves on the continuation of the hollow and shallow facade of celebrating August 14.

Azadi 1
Blood-letting of the powerless.

Azadi 2
Destruction of life by agents of the state.

Azadi 3
Changing positions of (Muslim and Hindu) power-brokers.

Azadi 4
The deadly religio-spiritual antagonist.

Azadi 5
Sectarian violence.

Azadi 6
Early faces of hope.

Azadi 7
Freedom for who?

Created after the formation of Bangladesh, Bhutto’s assassination, Zia’s Islamicization, and Pakistan’s Talibanization, Azadi Series displays the history of partition in the context of today, and, in bringing the past into the present where we continue to suffer from the same but intensified problems of inequality, these paintings insist that the moment of promise is now.

First Comment
‘It is so unfortunate that in the new provincial assembly there is no party/individual/group to voice the right of children to study in the mother tongue. maybe we need to start a signature campaign to promote the cause.’Posted by
ChitrkarOnHome Uddari Mudhla WarqaSubmitted
2008/04/07 at 9:19pm

Uddari Art Exhibition, the blog, began August 23rd with Shahid Mirza’s ‘kala Mainda Bhes’; and, in just over three months we already have the pleasure of viewing the work of over fifteen professional painters and photographers of Punjabi origin.

Shahid Mirza has created a highly pleasant video experience on the life by the Canal in Lahore. The afternoon on Lahore Canal in the Summer of 2006, is a scene happening everywhere by the canals, ponds, rivers, pools, marshes and puddles in the rural and urban Punjab.

Though male-exclusive, the scene is alive and infectiously festive. The visual is deceptive in that in the first few moments, and barring all noises, it seems as if it is Punjabi countryside; but then, the road becomes visible, and there, we have a bustling city life of Lahore by the Canal on a Sunday afternoon.

In the scorching heat of Lahore, running water is a necessity that becomes a luxury to the less privileged citizens of Lahore and surrounding areas. As apparent by the notice board shown at the beginning of the video, even when the local authorities have prohibited bathing and washing in the Canal, people are happily using it to wash themselves, their clothes, linen, sheep, rickshaws, fruits, and anything else that needs washing and is portable. The youth is practicing long and high dives, dips and floats; BhangRas are happening; and, leg-pullings are on.

The people interviewed in the video show no confidence in the local authorities to spend any money for the development of the Lahore Canal area as a park for public to make it easy, safe and more accessible for the people. Lahoris simply disregard the ‘prohibtion notice’ because their need to have such a public space is too great in the summer.

The video is available for viewing on YouTube in Punjabi and English sub-titles. The English version has Malika Taranum Noor Jehan’s popular public-domain song ‘SanooN nehr walae pul te bula ke te khaurae mahi tkithay reh gya‘ (After agreeing to meet with us at the bridge of the Canal, i wonder where my Lover has been detained) as the background music, and it is amazing how well it goes with the whole action in the video.

A widespread occurrence of deep sleep, napping, snoozing, dozing and blissful slumber has been witnessed by heidariam.blogfa.com during the sessions of the 21st International Conference on Islamic Unity in Tehran held May 4 to 6 in 2008.

According to a story posted May 5th, 2008 by Mudassir Rizwan, Muslim Ulema from Oman, Sudan, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Germany, the US, Tunisia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, France, Morocco, India, Algeria, Hong Kong, Qatar, Britain, Denmark, Iraq, Turkey, Gambia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and the United Arab Emirates are participating; over a hundred articles from foreign and domestic authors have been received by the secretariat of the conference of which 70 articles have been selected for presentation, he said.
“Preparing grounds for unity and solidarity of the Muslim World and bringing closer various cultural and scientific views are major goals of the conference. The participants are also to promote coexistence and find way out of current obstacles including the enemies’ plots and secular thoughts. The Islamic unity charter which has so far been signed by over 2,000 Muslim thinkers and scholars will be studied by the delegates.”

Here, find the Umah in action.

From waging heroic struggle against the onsalught of sleep

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To a continued resistance against it;

From hiding faces

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To Giving in;

From going overboard,

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To blissfulness,

To an invitation to an open slumber party.

No wonder, people in North America are inquiring about the materials those chairs and tables are made of; about the general environment of that place in Tehran; about the sounds heard by the participants; and, indeed the ideas discussed by the presenters. Their quest is to adopt or improvise the methods used in this Conference to bring sleep to millions of sleepless North American. This can be a breakthrough for consumers who are spending fortunes on sleep-inducing and anti-depressant drugs, on special mattresses and beds, pillows and pillow covers, and on slumber music and videos.